CK School Board picks interim superintendent, board seat

SILVERDALE - The Central Kitsap School Board handed out a couple of temp jobs Wednesday.

Following two interviews before the board's regular meeting, the board voted 3-1 to pick Jeanie Schulze over Victoria Crescenzi to fill the interim board position left open by the April 10 resignation of Christy Cathcart.

During the regular meeting, the board announced it had selected Hazel Bauman, Coeur d'Alene (Idaho) School District superintendent, to fill the same role in Central Kitsap for the 2013-14 school year.

Bauman beat out two other finalists: Larry Parsons, superintendent of the Roseburg (Ore.) School District; and Stephen Rowley, former Bainbridge Island School District superintendent and current interim chief academic officer in the Tukwila School District.

The interim superintendent position was made necessary by the resignation of Greg Lynch, whose contract will end June 30. Lynch is leaving to become superintendent of the Olympic Educational Service District 114 on July 1.

During her interview with the board Sunday, Bauman expressed confidence in her ability to get levies passed, encouraged district chat sessions with the public and said student achievement can be increased at times by a superintendent's visit to individual classrooms. She also said she is interested in extending her role as superintendent beyond the interim period.

Board President Mark Gaines said Bauman's contract was still being negotiated.

Schulze was picked for the board position Wednesday after both candidates faced questions from the board.

Crescenzi, a Naval Hospital Bremerton pediatrician who has sent two children through the district, said CK students have opportunities "that growing up in the Bronx I never would have imagined." She said she had earlier figured she would wait until 2015 to run for the seat, but decided to pursue the opening when Cathcart resigned.

Schulze, who worked for the district and has been part of the levy committees, ran for the seat in 2011 and lost to Cathcart. Schulze expressed her support for board operating standards designed to engender civility among members. "I don't want kids to grow up seeing adults not being adults," she said.

"In the election of 2011, the community spoke and clearly communicated their preference for director District Four. It appears to me that the majority of the current board did not listened and hear the community's message," Cathcart said.

The board seat will be up for election to fill the remaining two years of the term to which Cathcart was elected. Schulze's interim appointment gives her the job until the November general election is certified. Filing week for this year's political races begins Monday.